Labour have spent all morning spinning the line that last night’s vote on the 45p tax rate was not a vote on it and that their abstention was not a massive howler. Well now Guido has seen a chain of emails between nervous political advisers looking to Balls’ bruiser Alex Belardinelli for direction on how to clean up his mess. Bear in mind that Belardinelli and Balls have spent the morning denying that this was a cock up or anything other than part of their grand master plan:

Truth is there was a screw up somewhere along the way last night and it wasn’t clear what SNP had called a vote on or how, so we abstained on their vote.

Line is: we voted against whole Budget package which obviously includes 50p (first vote at 10pm), and we will seek to amend and vote on the Finance Bill on 50p, plus other issues of concern like the changes to allowances for pensioners (granny tax). There’s not much more we can say beyond that.

Other advisers “hope it will be ignored” after “trying to find out what went wrong”. They even share Guido’s coverage of events. The whole email chain can be found here.

Who would have thought that someone trained in the dark arts by firstly Tom Watson and then Balls would say one thing in public and something very different in private…

Vince’s SpAd Katie Waring has abandoned her post at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to go work for Ed Davey at Energy. According to Tom Newton Dunn, she claims that she is moving to “broaden” her skills, but it’s certainly on the face of it a self-imposed demotion in terms of government rankings and significance. Unless of course she sees the writing on the wall, and the fact that Davey has much more going for him than the one time Sage. Waring is the former smarter and more attractive other-half of Clegg spinner James McGrory. Guido wonders what the pillow talk was about Vince’s future…

This morning’s Today appearance was the first outing for Ed, apart from “Blackbusters”, since Dec 29. Despite the SNP pushing Labour into fourth place yesterday in terms of party profile, the new plan to keep Ed below the surface, only to be deployed at key strategic moments, is being stuck to. Labour sources compare it to the role that Osborne played in opposition. As Ed surfaces today, it’s worth looking at some of the tweaks being made below the waterline.

Former ITV chief Charles Allen, who recommended hiring Tim Livesey for the job of Ed’s Chief of Staff, is still trying to streamline the Labour operation in readiness for the arrival of six new Executive Directors. The jobs are currently being advertised, but word is they are filling up fast. Current press spinner Bob Roberts is likely to be going to Labour HQ, most probably in the Comms Director role. All agree that this is a promotion, though Guido wonders why you would want your main spinner based in a different office from your leader? Greg Beales is said to be mulling over whether to take the Policy and Rebuttal role that Guido mentioned yesterday, though apparently he is wary of leaving his master’s side. Though Labour HQ will be moving closer to parliament, a big shift away from the Leader of the Opposition’s suite is still happening.

While some people talk of a “refocus” for him, other speculate that Tom Baldwin is the loser of this reorganisation. One source even suggested Tom had lost a up to a third of his responsibilities, leaving him only with weekly key messages and strategic lines to take.

Lower down the ranks, the extraordinarily high turnover of demoralised political advisers leaving for jobs outside politics is rather telling…

Oh this just keeps getting better and better. Labour sources get in touch to point out that Kevin Lee has recently, and very quietly, been appointed Andy Burnham’s Political Adviser. That’s right, a man with business interests in health is crafting lines for Labour like “NHS not for sale”. Almost vintage Labour irony…

As one insider dryly observed: “Burnham gives well paid job without interview to mate who he owes £20,000″. Does that smell odd to anyone else? So Andy…

Where was the job advertised?

How many people were interviewed for it?

Why was the job given to Mr Lee?

What assurances were sought regarding Mr Lee’s private interests in the NHS?

Why has Mr Lee not declared that he owes you £21,000 in the Register of Members’ Staff Interests?

A good rule of thumb when feeding negative stories to the press about a Prime Minister, whose administration you work in, is not to do it from the office phone. A mighty row has blown up in Downing Street after a leak hunt has found the Deputy Prime Minister’s spokesman up to his neck in it after giving the Mirror a story about the Cameron and Osborne children playing in the Rose Garden. The Mail on Sunday reported the row yesterday without naming James McGrory as the leaker…

Cameron hit the roof and his staff got in Scotland Yard to trace the leak. McGrory’s study looks out over the Rose Garden and his phone made three calls to the Mirror just before they put a call in to Downing Street for a comment. On the day that Clegg announces that he is going to spend half a million on seven new LibDem SpAds across Whitehall, he should probably start thinking about an eighth…

With a Cabinet reshuffle comes the flurry of promotions, and then come the SpAd wars. Media advisor Hayden Allen is the only one of Fox’s SpAds to survive the resignation and will be staying at MoD. Fox’s three SpAds has been cut to two…

Policy wonk Sian Jones has gone with Hammond, and there was talk of Paul Stephenson, Hammond’s media SpAd going across too, but he has gone back to his old opposition boss – Andrew Lansley. Justine Greening at Transport is hiring…

Guido’s eyes and ears in Norman Shaw South report that there is a bit of a ding-dong going on between newly appointment Education shadow Stephen Twigg and the leadership. Twigg, who has reversed Labour’s policy against free-schools, is trying to have fellow Blairite and Lambeth councillor Alex Bigham installed as his, short-money funded, “Senior” Political Advisor. Guido called Alex who confirmed he has not yet been appointed and he couldn’t get off the phone quick enough. Sources point to some comments made during the leadership campaign about Ed, as well as some unease about having another Blairite “right-winger” in the team. Guido would recommended Ed develops a thicker skin…

UPDATE: Bigham denies the rift and expects to be appointed soon. Sensible…

So far we know that Ann McKechin, John Healey, John Denham and Shaun Woodward are out. Ivan Lewis thoroughly deserves his new job sitting in Easyjet departure lounges begging for meetings with international players having been demoted to Shadow DFID […]

What is it with big beasts of the Tory right and controversal trips with their advisers? The issue of Adam Werritty has been circling Liam Fox for months, after it emerged the unvetted and unemployed best-man of the Defence Secretary […]

In the Westminster Village the battle between the FT’s education correspondent and Gove has been providing much amusement. As is the way nowadays the battle has gone all handbags-at-dawn and spilled over onto Twitter:

Last week Guido outed Labour’s mole in the Department of Education who was leaking to his old boss Ed Balls. Well the Tories are coming after Matt Gillespie, who now spins for John Denham the Shadow Business Secretary. Backbencher Chris […]

Quote of the Day

“I read more bloggers now than mainstream columnists, because they’ve got more interesting things to say. Too many columnists today make you think, ‘Yeah, I think you’ve said that 10 times before and I’ve just noticed your column has not go a single fact in it’”.